Roast chicken with crème fraiche, new potatoes and watercress
John's love of roast chicken goes way back, he learnt how to make it in his first ever cooking lesson with his nana when he was five years old. Here he puts a twist on it - John's roast chicken with crème fraiche, new potatoes and watercress.
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 chicken, about 1.5kg200g crème fraiche½ lemon4 teaspoons vegetable oil500g new potatoes500g parsnips, peeled and halved350g turnips, halved100g watercressSalt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6
Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper, then spoon the crème fraiche into the cavity. Plug the end of the chicken with the lemon half. Rub the chicken with some if the oil, season well and then place in a roasting tin, breast up.
Roll the potatoes into the remaining oil and then scatter around the chicken
Roll the parsnips and turnips in some oil and place into a tray and roast for the same time you roast the chicken for
Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 1 hour 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Leave it.
Pick the largest stems off the watercress and put the lot into a large bowl filled with cold water. Push the watercress under the water and place the bowl in the fridge. The clean watercress will float to the top while all the dirt will sink to the bottom
Take the chicken out of the oven. Pour the crème fraiche out of the chicken over the potatoes in the tin, then turn the chicken upside down on to a board and leave it to sit for 10 minutes so that all the juices flow back into the breast. It will be done.
Meanwhile, place the tin over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring the potatoes around the tin so all the lovely sticky bits come off the sides if the tin and make the sauce. Take it off the heat.
Joint the chicken or just pull it apart. Drop the pieces into the tray of potatoes and mix them into the sauce.
Lift the watercress out of the bowl and shake off the excess water. Pour the chicken and potatoes onto a large platter and the roasted parsnips and turnips, scatter over the watercress, stir a little and pour yourself a congratulatory glass of wine.
Recipe taken from My Kind of Food by John Torode, out now